Necrosis
by PointBlank2890
Summary: When another attempt to fuse Combine and Resistance teleportation technology goes awry, Dr. Freeman and his group are transported to the world of the infected. There, they must attempt an escape from the clutches of the infected. But they are not alone.
1. Welcome to the City of the Infected

Ellis woke up with a jolt.

They had just reached a safe house around ten in the morning after traveling at night for seven hours straight. Ellis checked his watch. 2 p.m. Night travel was inevitable. They didn't want to collide with any witches who maybe walking around at this time of the day. Also, the infected were more edgy than at night for no apparent reason. The safe room was still dark from their efforts of blocking out the sun with mattresses and sheets they found upstairs. But Ellis clearly heard the sound of Gunshots. It was faint, but still audible.

Heaving himself off the couch, he stood up and headed to the door. He set aside one of the mattresses they used to block the safe room door. Immediately, light flooded in. Ellis shielded his eyes from the beam of sunlight. Squinting, he peered past the bars of the safe room door. There was a tank out there! Diving down, he crawled to a nearby table for his Combat Rifle. He had gotten it from Whitaker's shop long ago. It came with a laser sight attachment. Nick said that it made the thing more accurate, and made Ellis less of a crazy, gung-ho moron. After all that it's been through, it never left his side.

Creeping toward the door, he carefully peered outside again. The Tank was busy giving chase to a man wielding something in his hand. Without thinking, Ellis slid the gun's muzzle past the safe house bars. Aiming carefully, he fired a complete magazine into the Tank. That got the Tank's attention. It abandoned its chase with the man and headed straight toward the safe house! Ellis frantically reloaded from the magazine pile on the nearby table, stepped back a couple of feet, and positioned himself for the offensive. He waited until the tank was in range until he unleashed hell with his gun. He was hitting it, but it wasn't slowing down! Out of nowhere, a car slammed into the Tank, sending it crashing to a wall. Ellis stumbled backward and fell flat on his seat. Feeling the shock , the other Survivors came rushing down from the nearby bedrooms upstairs.

"Ellis what's going on?" asked Rochelle, helping Ellis back on his feet.

"I'm not so sure myself Ro..." replied Ellis with a nervous grin.

Nick came rushing past them, opening the safe room door. He was shocked to see a Tank's corpse wedged between a wall and the car.

"Would you look at that Ellis what the hell happened here?" Asked a very shocked Nick.

"I dunno Nick. All I remember is waking up and seeing a man being chased by a Tank outside. I got my rifle and pumped a few rounds in it. It came heading this way, before I know, a car collided with it. That's all that happened before you guys came running down here."

Coach grabbed the guns and gave them to the others. All of them headed outside to see the damage. Rochelle came closer to the car, inspecting it. Looks to me as if the car was thrown towards the Tank. Not crashed. Thrown, or punted perhaps. But how?" She asked, staring at the other confused survivors. "At least the whole wall wasn't destroyed. We would have been crushed." replied Coach. All of a sudden, they heard something behind them. All at once, the four survivors turned around and saw a figure behind them. It looked like it was not an infected. It was a man, holding a red crowbar in his hand.

"Hey, you! Yes you!" Nick shouted, running towards the man.

"Hey Nick, Wait up!" Ellis panted, trying to catch up with him. The other two joined them, running towards the ominous figure in the distance.

When they finally reached the man, all of them were panting and sweating. The man was leaning against a brick wall that belonged to some sort of warehouse. He was a very peculiar person. He was wearing some sort of weird space suit. First of all, it looked like some sort of armor bathed in deep saturated orange around the chest and lower torso. The materials underneath the orange parts, located in between the joints were a rubbery, workmanlike grey fabric. The upper torso held a chest plate bearing some sort of hardened plating. In the middle of the chest piece was a crest bearing a familiar looking symbol. The man inside the suit had his head bowed down in exhaustion. Yet, beneath his face, a distinct pair of spectacled revealed themselves. Nick came up to the man and asked.

"Hey who are you? Did you do that?" he said, pointing to the Tank.

No reply.

"Hey buddy. I'm talking to you!"

No reply.

"Hey! Are you deaf or something? And what's with your crazy outfit?"

Still no reply.

Nick was furious. "I've had it with this guy. Either he's mute, he's deaf, or just plain crazy."

Ellis noticed a strange object lying on top of a crate. It looked like some sort of cross between a claw and a gun. The device had some sort of weird glowing thing inside it, making it radiate a bright orange tinge. Ellis picked it up. It felt heavy in his arms. As he lifted it up, the muzzle of the gun (or what appeared to be a muzzle) came to face the crate. Three small claws at the tip of the thing snapped open, and a buzzing noise emanated from the thing. The man noticed him handling the object and grabbed it out of his hands. Then he slumped down against the wall, tired.

"Looks like someone doesn't like having his things touched. Coach teased. "Sort of like Nick here." Pointing to Nick behind him.

Very funny. Nick replied sarcastically.

The man managed to give a small grin. Coach took it as a friendly gesture.

"They call me Coach by the way. Looks like you've already met Nick. Oh and that's Ellis and Rochelle." He said extending a helping hand. The man grabbed it and shook it gently. He then stood up and began writing something on the dirt with his crowbar. The Survivors understood what the man was writing.

"_Freeman_."


	2. First Contact

"So, Freeman right?" Asked Rochelle to Freeman, who was lying on a couch back at the safehouse. It was three hours after the incident. All of them had agreed that it was much safer there than outside.

"What exactly were you doing out there wandering all by yourself?" continued Coach, standing behind Rochelle. He was cooking up supper for the others with some canned goods they found in a grocery store two blocks away. Mostly Tuna and Beans, but it would have to do. "Don't you know that it not safe to be all alone out there? You could have been pounced out there."

Freeman gave no response. He was still lying on his side on the sofa but his eyes were tuned to Coach and Rochelle, meaning he was listening.

"You don t talk much, do you?" asked Rochelle heading into the kitchen to prepare the table. Freeman grunted and turned and had his back against the others in a gesture of annoyance. Ellis came down the stairs and headed directly in the kitchen. "What's for dinner Coach?" asked Ellis hungrily. "Oh the usual, Beans and fish. At least we still have a decent meal." replied Coach.

"Man, I gotta say Coach, I miss suppertime at my house. We'd have Fried chicken sometimes, coupled with mashed 'taters, gravy and beans. Sometimes Keith would come along for dinner. He sure stirred up trouble. He'd devour every morsel on the table. My ma' would be blushing whenever Keith would compliment her cooking. Man, that was some good times..."

Rochelle intervened. "Well at least we got the beans part right. Pork and beans fresh off the stove! Come get it while it's hot."

Nick appeared at the foot of the stairs. His hair was ruffled up and his suit was wrinkled and covered in blood. Well, zombie blood anyway. Coach called everyone to the table. They had been fairly lucky to have found a safe house that was a particularly decent house. All the lights were working and so was the electric stove. The downside was, the TV was wrecked and was lying in the corner of the room. It was no use anyway, since the people who had the job to operate the stations were already dead or dead-ish. Everyone sat down on the table except Freeman. Coach entered the living room and nudged Freeman out of his stupor. "Freeman, time to eat. Gotta stay energized boy. Let's go!" Freeman hauled himself of the couch (Which, a few short hours ago, Ellis had done the same thing) and trudged towards the kitchen. He took a vacant seat at the opposite end of the table facing Coach. He quietly filled up his plate and began to eat. "Here have more of these beans. Ro' doesn't want anymore anyway." Ellis said to Freeman, passing a plate of beans towards him.

"No Thank You." Replied Freeman.

Everyone was still for a second. Everyone stopped eating and no one uttered a thing. Nick broke the silence.

"Huh. So you can talk huh? It's about time." Nick said in his usual deadpan manner.

A few moments of awkward silence followed before Freeman spoke up.

That thing outside. The one I just killed. What was that thing?

You re kidding right? Rochelle asked.

Freeman shook his head.

I can t believe this. Nick said. What, you ve been hiding under a rock when the infection hit?

Shut up Nick. Ellis retaliated. That there, was a Tank. Ugly, ugly brutes. Picks up cars just to pancake you.

Yeah, I know.

So lemme get this straight; you know nothing about the Green Flu and the friggin infected? Nick shot back. Wow.

Encountered the infected yet? Rochelle curiously inquired.

Freeman returned a confused look.

You know Bloodshot eyes, Missing limbs and appendages, Unstoppable rage, a thirst for human flesh

The zombies, man. Ellis clarified.

Oh. Yes. A few of them ganged up on me, but I managed to fend them off with my crowbar. He tapped the metal rod sheathed in his belt. I must admit, they were much faster than any headcrab zombies I have ever encountered; Well, apart from the fast ones. And the behemoth you call a Tank was a tad easier to dispatch than an Antlion Guardian. A car took care of it.

What are you talking about Freeman? Coach spoke up.

Freeman dropped the plastic spoon and fork in his hands and looked at the others. "It's Gordon actually. Gordon Freeman. I think I owe you people my thanks for helping me outside and for sheltering me; and I feel that I need some further explanation to explain my situation to you.

Sounds about right. Nick remarked.

I was separated with two of my friends a few hours ago before you saw me. We managed to establish that we were supposed to head to an abandoned warehouse up north to meet up. Surely, once I reach them, we can continue-" Gordon cut himself off. Well, I m not really at liberty to say. Let s just assume I need to head up north as soon as possible. Gordon continued his meal.

"We're heading up north ourselves. Why don't we come with you?" Coach asked, ignoring Nick.

"No. It's too risky." replied Freeman.

Rochelle placed a hand on Gordon's shoulder and said: "It's hell up there, no one can make it all on his own. You stray off to far and go lone wolf, and you re dead. You re going to need all the help you can get."

Before Gordon could reply, Nick interrupted him and said, "It's settled then. We're heading up north to help reunite this shifty looking guy whom we met only a few hours ago with his buddies who may or may not be already dead just for kicks. Right?"

"Yup." Replied Rochelle "Exactly." Added Coach "That's just about right." said Ellis.

"Okay then. Looks like I have no other choice. Gordon, We're leaving tonight." said Nick chomping on a spoonful of beans. 


	3. Echolocation

"Okay I just gotta ask" said Coach disbelievingly, "Since when have you ever agreed to any of this anyway?" It was nine p.m. They were up north and been walking four ten minutes straight after resting a few moments ago. Before leaving the safehouse, they all planned to take the route through the town.

"Well," said Nick. "Let's list the Cons. One, We might be mincemeat for all the zombies out here. Two, I could freeze my butt off in the cold. And three, I could die, or worse, become one of them." Nick breathed. "The Pros..." He thought about it for a moment before blurting out. "...It could be fun as hell." He grinned. A rare grin no one had ever seen unless he was teasing Coach about his weight and his love for chocolate.

All four of them gave a hearty laugh like they have never laughed before. It seemed everything was right again in the world. No zombies. NO bombing runs. Just pure happiness. But moments like those never last long, as any survivor in this post-apocalyptic world should know. They all heard a low growling noise coming somewhere in front of them. All four of them stopped instinctively except Gordon. He strided past them eyes fixed on the path ahead. He did not notice the other survivors stop dead in their tracks. He did not hear the low growling noise that sounded closely to a feral predator stalking it's prey silently. He did not see a shadowy figure leap across the dark silhouette of the nearby rooftops. He did not anticipate being thrown to the ground, as if being rammed by a mountain goat at full run, and lying there helpless as a hooded figure lay on top of him and began clawing and scratching his suit.

"Gordon!" Rochelle screamed. Without further hesitation, she ran up to a pinned down Gordon and smacked the hooded one with one powerful blow from the butt of her Automatic Kalashnikov. The hooded figure stumbled for a few precious moments before standing in a threatening position; its soulless face stared straight at her. For a few milliseconds, Rochelle glimpsed a look under the hood of the monster that was standing before them. It had no eyes. Bloodshot eye sockets pierced through Rochelle's soul and she stood there, stunned. The next moment, the hooded one was crouched, ready to attack once again. With a terrifying howl, the beast leapt forward. Its target: Rochelle. Pushing her out of the way, Gordon Freeman fired a round of buckshot straight into the creature's chest. It fell a few feet behind them.

"Thanks..." muttered a shaken, but okay Rochelle.

"No problem." replied Freeman. When he had finished gasping for air, Freeman asked. "What was that thing?"

"They're called hunters." Coach stepped in. "Well, we like to call 'em that. Anyway Gordon, that's one of the reasons we accompanied you out here. Once they pin you down, you can't push them off. No matter how hard you try."

Ellis interrupted. "'Man if you thought that was nasty, wait till you meet the other infected."

"Are you all right?" asked Rochelle, studying the claw marks on Gordon's strange suit. She had never seen one of these before. It was a thick armored suit, with a strange symbol on his chest. Judging by the look of it, it seemed heavy. But Gordon was still able to run in that suit of his. "Gordon, I was wondering. Well, we're all wondering. What exactly is that suit of yours?"

"Yeah Gordon," said Ellis. "It looks even weirder than Nick s suit over there."

"Ha-ha. Very funny Ellis." retorted Nick.

Rochelle continued talking. "I mean, I've been to NASA and to other scientific facilities. I've seen suits almost as strange as yours. Hazmat Suits, Armored Suits, Spacesuits; Yet, yours is different. What's your story anyway?"

Gordon hesitated. He breathed in, and spoke. "You may want to sit down for this."

All four of them sat down on the sidewalk and listened carefully.  
"My name is Gordon Freeman; and this is my Hazardous Environment suit. Two days ago, me and two of my friends were scheduled to be teleported to a Resistance base just outside of City 17. It was one of the major branches that the Resistance used as a Headquarters. While being teleported, a malfunction occurred in the machine. My friends were teleported somewhere else and I was teleported outside the warehouse where you found me. They both radioed in that they were just up north of this town in a warehouse. I tried to head there myself, but got caught by that enormous hulk of a beast.. I guess that's the part where you found me." He stopped and looked at the shocked faces of the other survivors.

"Hazardous Environment suit?"

"Teleportation?"

"City 17?"

"It's hard to make it sound sensible, but you're gonna have to trust me on this one guys." said Gordon

"Well, don't worry Gordon. We'll be at your side." said Coach, slinging one of his arms over Gordon's shoulder.

"Man we're lucky there's no one 'round. It's been quiet ever since we've entered town." Said Ellis, changing the topic.

As if on cue, silhouettes appeared behind them. Snarling and running towards them.

"This is why we have guns!" proclaimed Nick, energizing the whole team as they readied their guns, bracing for the horde 


	4. Asphyxia

[A/N: Sorry for the long upload guys; I just never had the time to look on this. Guess Valve time affects everyone, eh?]

Ellis had a Combat Rifle equipped with an additional laser sight.

Nick had a military standard Semi Automatic Sniper Rifle.

Rochelle had an AK-47 rifle.

Coach had a Full Auto Tactical Shotgun.

Gordon on the other hand, had this... strange, futuristic looking gun. It bore a gleaming black metal that shined under the moonlight; Undistinguishable characters written on the side. Gordon held it up to his shoulder, aiming it like a rifle.

"They're almost here guys. Get ready." Rochelle said to the others.

When the first few infected appeared from the corner, Nick peered into his rifle's scope and fired.

_Bang_

_Bang_

_Bang_

_Bang_

Four infected down in matter of seven seconds. The others arrived right behind them, snarling. Ellis and Rochelle cleared off the next few that appeared. Behind them, some infected appeared out of the buildings and alleyways.

"Pipe bomb." said Ellis to Gordon, brandishing a homemade explosive made solely out of PVC pipe, black powder, and the remnants of a smoke alarm. "Beeping attracts them. They swarm these things like flies to horse shit." He then took a lighter out of his right pocket and ignited the fuse. He threw it to a nearby alleyway; the pipe bomb bounced around and disappeared around the corner. Infected appeared from inside one of the buildings and chased it round the corner; some came from behind them, rushing out and ignoring the survivors. As they passed by, their faces were torn in a snarl, sort of in a way saying to the survivors, "You're next."

The pipe bomb exploded, sending several torn limbs and blood flying in the air and landing near the survivors. One object even landed on Nick's shoulder.

It was a human nose.

"**SHIT!** **THAT IS NOT FUNNY**!" he screamed brushing the human nose off his shoulder.

The three other survivors laughed; meanwhile, Gordon was dumbstruck, clearly not seeing the drastic change in Nick's persona. The laughter came to a halt as more footsteps were heard coming from an alleyway.

"I'll take care of this one." said Gordon, with a sly look on his face. He raised his weird looking rifle up to his shoulder, and fired.

A peculiar looking object appeared out of the muzzle of his "gun". It had the appearance of a spherical object. Inside it were swirling colors of blue, black, and a white core; a truly peculiar thing. It bounced around the alleyway at extremely high velocities. Whenever it touched one of the infected, the infected would drift slowly in the air and turned slowly to black and disappearing altogether. Gordon managed to clear off all the infected in that alleyway with that one attack. Everyone was awe struck, their mouths agape with shock.

Finally Ellis spoke out. "Whoa. What did you just do to them Gordon?"

"It's a pulse rifle, and the thing you just saw obliterate those things was a Dark Energy orb. This pulse rifle has a secondary fire mode that enables it to launch a ball of pure dark energy that will disintegrate anything living thing in its path."

"I have no idea what you just said." Nick remarked.

"Dark energy..." Rochelle's voice trailed off.

Nick raised a brow in her direction.

"I interviewed a renowned physicist once, Dr. Sheila Connor, who was theorizing about Dark energy."

"She said that it was a form of energy that naturally permeates all of space throughout the universe, and on large scales it opposes the force of gravity as it has strong negative pressure."

Everyone stared at her.

"She also mentioned that Human cosmologists hypothesized the existence of dark energy with negative pressure to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe, and it was calculated that 70% or more of the universe consisted of dark energy. The nature of this energy was unknown and it could not be directly detected, hence the name 'dark energy'."

"Impressive." Gordon said.

"Yeah, well...I'm a Reporter, Y'know?"

Gordon explained, "You see, A this pulse-rifle can also be loaded with dark energy cores to give the weapon a grenade-like alternate fire mode that launches a dark energy ball. When such a concentrated blast of exotic matter passes through a human-sized life form, the target is instantly killed. Furthermore, the victim's mass is cancelled out by the negative energy, causing the corpse to start floating in defiance of gravity a moment before it dissolves as a result of molecular disintegration."

"So that's what happened to 'those zombies back there in the alleyway. No corpse, nuthin."

"It's amazing how you managed to make Ellis understand all of this, Rochelle." Nick chimed, receiving a nasty look from Ellis. "Okay, Time for science is over. Let's get moving people."

"The mysteries of the universe are lost on that man." Rochelle muttered, shaking her head.

After checking themselves for any wounds, they continued walking. Thirteen minutes in, they had managed to get halfway through the town. They arrived at the entrance of a ruined park. The road in front of it was packed with rubble from an adjacent building, so no way through there. They decided to check out the entrance.

"Whelp, looks like it's locked. Any ideas guys?" said Ellis, looking hopefully at his companions.

"I'll give it a go." said Gordon, whipping out his red crowbar. He hacked the padlock a couple of times and the lock came off successfully.

When everyone had stepped inside the park, Ellis shut the gate. The park was a few inches below street level. The first thing they saw when they had reached a clearing was a ruined water fountain. The fountain itself was still working, streaming jets of water out onto the ground. However, the magnificent marble structure that it was once was now destroyed.

"Watch where you step." said Nick.

"Hey guys, we should really fill up our water bottles in the fountain." Coach said. "It still looks pretty clean; looks like the water system in this town is still working."

As they took turns filling up their canteens, Ellis heard a familiar and foreboding sound emanating from the area they had just came from.

"Hey anybody coughin'?" asked Ellis nervously to the others, his hands shaking. Everyone shook their heads. That could only mean one thing...

And with that, a tongue lashed out from out of the darkness and wrapped itself around Ellis' body. It dragged him kicking and screaming back into the abyss.

"What the-" was the only words Ellis managed to utter before he was dragged, kicking and screaming, back into the darkness.

"Ellis!" everyone chimed. The remaining four survivors ran as fast as their feet could take them towards him. Gordon and Coach managed to grab hold of Ellis by his shoulders and began a frantic tug-of-war between them and the Smoker. While the Smoker was occupied, Nick took a bloody fire axe, and with one mighty swing, cut the tongue. A scream of agony came from the Smoker. It was hardly a scream actually, since the mutation it has undergone had a drastic effect on its vocal cords. To be fair, it was like a distorted 'ack!'. One part of the tongue was still wrapped around Ellis, while the other one was slowly making its way back into the Smoker's tongue.

"Oh no you don't." Rochelle muttered to herself as she swung her Kalashnikov around and caught it reflexively. She let out a hail of gunfire on the Smoker, emptying an entire magazine in the process. The Smoker must have been already dead halfway through the mag.

As the others helped Ellis back on his feet, Nick had a sly grin on his face for no apparent reason.

"Are you okay, because that's what, the 12th time you've been dragged this week? That's a new record even for you Ellis."

"Very funny, Nick." Ellis muttered. "And I'm okay, thanks for asking."

Honestly, Ellis was not okay. He was tired, he was sure he had broken or bruised some of his ribs, and he was in a real need for a cup of coffee right about now. That reminded him...

"Hey 'Ro, could you hand me the Thermos?" Rochelle gave him a silver flask that they had filled up earlier before they left the safe house.

Ellis took the cup of and began to take careful sips. The water was still hot but it was just what he needed out there in the cold, dark embrace of the night. The Survivors usually took had hot water with them when they traveled because water they had found and collected had to be boiled to get rid of all the harmful stuff in it. Sometimes, when they get lucky, they would each bring a cup of instant noodles and eat them along the way. It was okay to keep the stomach quiet, but a cup of rich caffeine would surely not have hurt. The problem was, they never had a packet of instant coffee with them to fill the entire flask. So this would have to do Ellis thought.

Once they had cleared the park of supplies, they headed outside and sealed the gate behind them. They had entered a small road district that had barricaded doors and boarded up windows. One shop, on the other hand, had a boarded up door with the glass window smashed that gave them a welcome invitation. Plus, the thing had its inner lights on, so it probably had a generator inside. Now this was all fine and dandy to Ellis, but what made it even better was-

"Holy shit guys, a 7-Eleven!" Ellis screamed with excitement he only felt on those special occasions.

"**LOOTING SPREE!**" Nick yelled, rushing through the shattered glass window and grabbing each and every item he could get a hold of. Coach followed enthusiastically.

What the hell, thought Rochelle. It was near impossible to ever see a building with functional lights nowadays. Let alone a fully operational convenience store. "I call dibs on the counter knick-knacks!" she screamed, running after the two like a giddy schoolgirl. God, she thought. It was a long time since she had ever been so happy. Once was at the carnival, but that's another story altogether...

Ellis headed straight towards his first target; A coffee machine. He poured himself a cup and filled up his own flask. He plopped down in a nearby chair and tried to put is mind at ease.

"Freeman, catch!" Nick cried out, throwing a bag of chips into the air; which promptly landed unharmed in front of Gordon's Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator.

"Nice job Freeman. But let's see how well you are backhand!" He threw a bag of pretzels at him, which he caught once again.

"Man. This is one fine looking cheeseburger." Coach said, gazing lovingly into a large Cheeseburger he re-heated in a microwave oven nearby.

Now, while all the boys were having fun at the back, Rochelle was checking out the front. As large part of it was destroyed. Mostly the counter, but everything was all fine there. She rummaged around, hoping to find some essential supplies for future rainy days. Maybe some soap or shampoo, a toothbrush, or even some breath mints.

Being a newscaster, she had put cleanliness and well being into the top of her list of things to do every morning. It was essential when doing live interviews and news coverage. No sense of good grooming now. Still, taking a shower every once in a while calmed her; Made her relax, Made her feel _human_ again in this apocalyptic world of the undead. She looked down behind the counter; Nothing. Easing her eyes slowly to the right revealed a bloody human hand that was connected to a body that lay underneath a chunk of concrete.

Now this would not strike her as strange any more than finding a body in the roads and sidewalks, but this was different. As she surveyed the body, she had an epiphany; as if two wires connected themselves in her mind. The broken in glass window, the destroyed counter, and the mangled corpse under a concrete slab…

Only one thing could create destruction of that magnitude...

"Oh no." Rochelle muttered.

"What?" said Gordon, appearing behind a very stunned Rochelle. Once his eyes met to what she was looking at, he grew uneasy. "Ooh… Is that bad?"

"Gordon, take a mental note; things like this aren't always a good omen."

As if on cue, the street was filled with a loud roar and distant thundering footsteps. The sound of cars being flung into the air by humongous fists awoke them out of their stupor.

"Guys, I think we need to go." Rochelle said to her group, without taking her eyes of the slab in front of her.

Ellis took point, immediately finding a doorway and ushering them into an adjacent alley.

As soon as all of them got out, Gordon slammed the door shut and proceeded to blockade it with nearby trashcans and a broken table.

"GORDON! Those things won't stop a Tank! Let's go NOW!" Rochelle screamed, dragging Gordon by his shoulders and pushing him near the others.

As soon as they got halfway out the alley, another roar erupted from the building they just came from. Succeeding it was a mighty punch. The door and the barricade was littered out into the alley and a Tank stepped out of the doorway. It got itself stuck in the narrow doorway long enough for the Survivors to be alerted of its presence.

"**TANK!**" The four Survivors screamed in unison.

Everyone started running away and shooting frantically. The Tank was closing in on them just as they piled out onto the Main Street. Cars were littered literally everywhere. Some even stuck inside walls of nearby buildings. Luckily, none seem to have active alarms.

As the beast itself toppled onto the street, it gave a deafening roar while raising both its humongous arms in the air like some undead gorilla.

Gordon smirked; it seemed like an undead, homicidal version of D0g.

The Survivors took it as a chance to widen the gap even more, running frantically away. It was difficult to do so, since they had to constantly hop over upturned cars and even some burning ones.

Once they had reached at least a few hundred meters, all five of them proceeded to hide behind separate upturned vehicles while unleashing hell upon the Tank. Slowly, the Tank approached. Flinching their and here from the hailstorm of lead, but still approaching. It was obvious that it was getting mad. It punched a nearby taxi with such strength, that it went flying above them and landed some distance behind them. It continued to do this to remove any obstacles barring its path. Meanwhile, Ellis saw something familiar in a nearby store.

"Hey Gordon, Keep that thing busy for me, will ya? I'm just gonna get somethin'." Ellis said, darting across the street and into another broken in window.

"**Keep it busy? I'm a Theoretical Physicist. I don't keep things busy**!" he yelled back. Although on aside note, he was really good at obeying commands; as fighting with the Resistance showed him.

The Tank was closing in on them. And with a punch, it smacked a sedan towards Rochelle and Nick's direction. It spun in the air long enough for Gordon to sprint over to them and take out his Gravity Gun that they had seen earlier. He pointed the device in the car's direction and pressed the trigger.

The gun unleashed an orange blast of energy that punted the sedan back a couple of feet. The Tank resumed its attack; punting another car in their way.

"Guys, Look. I've found some gas cans and a-" Ellis was cut off by a car landing only inches in front of him.

"Aaagh!" he screamed, jumping into the air a couple of feet. Once he had regained himself, he quickly sprinted back to the others and handed each of them a gas can. They threw these near the Tank and ignited them with a Molotov cocktail.

The Tank was aflame; A horrible towering inferno to describe in detail. It was slowing down quite a bit. The Survivors took notice of this and blasted the remaining life out of the Tank with everything they've got. As Gordon slumped down near Ellis to reload, Ellis noticed the strange looking claw he had seen only a few hours ago on their first initial encounter.

"Hey Gordon, what's that thing do?" Ellis asked, gazing at the makeshift device lying next to him.

"This." Gordon said, Picking up said device and pointing it at a Propane tank Ellis had gotten. He pressed a trigger and instantly the propane tank hovered in front of the gun. He lifted it up, aimed it at the monster and fired. The Propane Tank was punted through the air by the device and hit the Tank square in its chest and exploded on impact. The Tank stumbled back a couple of feet, roared, and collapsed.

It took them a few seconds to regain themselves and another few more to inspect the Tank's corpse.

"It's dead." Coach muttered.

"I think we need to find a safe house, now. Sun's going to come up in a few hours." Nick announced.

As a reply, somewhere near them came the sound of wailing and sobbing…

[A/N: Well, there's another chapter. Again, forgive me for the time lapses; I'm gonna put up another chapter soon!]


End file.
